Wednesday, July 19, 2017

CIA weapons worth millions intended for Syrian 'rebels' were stolen, sold by Jordan on black market, some used to kill two Americans there. Existence of failed CIA Syria weapons program is "classified." CIA prisoners are kept in secret jail in Jordan- NY Times, 6/26/2016, joint investigation by NY Times and Al Jazeera

"Weapons shipped into Jordanby the Central Intelligence Agency and Saudi Arabia
intended for Syrian rebels have been systematically stolen by Jordanian
intelligence operatives and sold to arms merchants on the black market,
according to American and Jordanian officials.Some of the stolen weapons were used in a shootingin November that killed two Americans and three others at a police training facility in Amman, F.B.I.officials believe after months of investigating the attack, according to people familiar with the investigation.The
existence of the weapons theft, which ended only months ago after
complaints by the American and Saudi governments, is being reported for the first time after a joint investigation by The New York Times and Al
Jazeera.The theft, involving millions of dollars of weapons,highlights
the messy, unplanned consequences ofprograms to arm and train rebels —
the kind of program the C.I.A. and Pentagon have conducted for decades —
even after the Obama administration had hoped to keep the training
program in Jordan under tight control....The
theft and resale of the arms — including Kalashnikov assault rifles,
mortars and rocket-propelled grenades — have led to a flood of new
weapons available on the black arms market.Investigators do not know
what became of most of them, but a disparate collection of groups,
including criminal networks and rural Jordanian tribes, use the arms
bazaars to build their arsenals. Weapons smugglers also buy weapons in
the arms bazaars to ship outside the country....The
training program, which in 2013 began directly arming the rebels under
the code name Timber Sycamore,is run by the C.I.A. and several Arab
intelligence servicesand aimed at building up forces opposing President
Bashar al-Assad of Syria. The United States and Saudi Arabia are the biggest contributors, with the Saudis contributing both weapons and large sums of money, and with C.I.A. paramilitary operatives taking the lead in training the
rebels to use Kalashnikovs, mortars, antitank guided missiles and other
weapons.The
existence of the program is classified,as are all details about its
budget....The
training program is based in Jordan because of the country’s proximity
to the Syrian battlefields. From the beginning, the C.I.A. and the Arab
intelligence agencies relied on Jordanian security services to transport
the weapons, many bought in bulk in the Balkans and elsewhere around
Eastern Europe.

The
program is separate from one that the Pentagon set up to train rebels
to combat Islamic State fighters, rather than the Syrian military. That program was shut down after it managed to train only a handful of Syrian rebels.

Jordanian
and American officials described the weapons theft and subsequent
investigation on the condition of anonymity because the Syrian rebel
trainingis classified in the United Statesand is a government secret
in Jordan.News of the weapons theftand eventual crackdown has been circulating inside Jordan’s government for several months....

In 2009, a Jordanian doctor —brought to the C.I.A. by a G.I.D. [Jordanian intelligence] officer
after the doctor said he had penetrated Al Qaeda’s leadership —turned out to be a double agent
and blew himself up at a remote base in Afghanistan.Seven C.I.A.
employees, as well as the G.I.D. officer,were killed in the attack....

The
training programfor Syrian rebels trying to oust President Bashar
al-Assad is largely armed and funded by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. It
was launched in neighboring Jordan in 2013 and relies heavily on
Jordanian forces to transport weapons....

Jordanian
officials told the news organizations that a group of Jordanian
intelligence operatives siphoned off truckloads of weapons before
delivering them to their intended destinations.After complaints
from the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, several dozen Jordanian intelligence
officers were reportedly arrested and fired from their posts but were
able to keep pensions and money they made from the scheme.".................Comment: US taxpayers are the world's laughing stock...........